Naresh Chandra Saxena - What Ails the IAS and Why It Fails to Deliver

SAGE was founded in 1965 by Sara Miller McCune to support the dissemination of usable knowledge by publishing innovative and high-quality research and teaching content. Today, we publish over 900 journals, including those of more than 400 learned societies, more than 800 new books per year, and a growing range of library products including archives, data, case studies, reports, and video. SAGE remains majority-owned by our founder, and after Saras lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures our continued independence.

Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne

All over the world, relentless commodification has cynicized the behaviour of states. Even though India is no exception to that, before asking What can be done, it is worth asking What is Indian about this process? because the formulaic answer is so often even less state. Dr Saxena, an IAS, gives us a book full of closely observed insights from his own working life and those of others about both inspiring successes and failures of system maintenance against the politicization of elite administrative culture, the penetration of private venality, and of caste, regional, religious and patriarchal identities into what he estimates is the wetter half of Indias bureaucratic system. Even in the drier half, however, the result is poor development outcomes. He builds up to administrative reforms which include stability of tenure, domain expertise, pruning redundant positions, mid-career secondment for fresh experiences, lateral entry, shake-ups for accountability and M&E, especially of absenteeism. But they all need collective political backing. If you disagree, the ball is now in your court to mount an even better argument.

Barbara Harriss-White, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies, Oxford University

Hailed by some as Indias steel frame and reviled by others as a relic of the colonial past, the Indian Administrative Service is an enigma for most. In this candid insider account of it, Naresh Saxena gives the IAS a human face and shares valuable ideas for administrative reform.

Jean Dreze, Honorary Professor, Delhi School of Economics

Dr Saxena is an immensely gifted and accomplished authority on the Indian Administrative Service. Here he draws on his unparalleled breadth of experiencein the ministries of rural development, environment and forests, and revenue; as Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration; and on the Minorities Commission and the National Advisory Council. The result is a perceptive, compelling and deeply humane critique of the Service and its place in Indias recent history.

James Manor, School of Advanced Study, University of London

A brutally frank and brilliant assessment by a very experienced civil servant of the failure of the IAS to deliver efficiently key services of health, forest rights, education and tribal rights and removal of hunger of the common man. Full of very interesting anecdotes on interface with politicians, self-introspection and suggestion on reforming the governance system. Emphasizes the need for administrative reforms including stable tenures, accountability, effective monitoring and information system and capacity building. A very compelling call for systemic change.

B. K. Chaturvedi, Former Cabinet Secretary,
Government of India

A truly unusual and provocative book, written with candour, commitment and clarity. N. C. Saxenas superb account of the IAS places civil service reform in the context of a sharp and informed view of Indias larger politics and society and the need for greater individual and collective initiatives together with strong political and administrative will to implement systemic reforms. This impressive work will appeal to those with an interest in making the state more outcome oriented and accountable to the people.

Zoya Hasan, Professor Emerita, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Copyright Naresh Chandra Saxena, 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published in 201 by

SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd

B1/I-1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area

Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044, India

www.sagepub.in

SAGE Publications Inc

2455 Teller Road

Thousand Oaks, California 91320, USA

SAGE Publications Ltd

1 Olivers Yard, 55 City Road

London EC1Y 1SP, United Kingdom

SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd

18 Cross Street #10-10/11/12

China Square Central

Singapore 048423

Published by Vivek Mehra for SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd. Typeset in 10.5/13.5 pts Bembo and 10/13 pts Helvetica Neue Condensed by Fidus Design Pvt. Ltd, Chandigarh.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

ISBN: 978-93-532-8649-1 (ePub)

SAGE Team: Namarita Kathait, Manisha Mathews, Ankit Verma and Kanika Mathur

Thank you for choosing a SAGE product!
If you have any comment, observation or feedback,
I would like to personally hear from you.
Please write to me at
Vivek Mehra, Managing Director and CEO, SAGE India.

Bulk Sales

SAGE India offers special discounts
for purchase of books in bulk.
We also make available special imprints
and excerpts from our books on demand.

For orders a nd enquiries, write to us at

Marketing Department

SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd

B1/I-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area

Mathura Road, Post Bag 7

New Delhi 110044, India

E-mail us at

Subscribe to our mailing list
Write to

This book is also available as an e-book.

It is a formidable privilege for me to be invited to write the foreword of a book by a person who has straddled, as an intellectual colossus, Indias higher civil services, for decades. Dr N. C. Saxena represents the best traditions of what has become in recent decades a very rare breeda scholar administrator. He is one who has competently worked in the system at senior levels and contributed very significantly to social justice policymaking and at the same time is able to critically reflect on the inner workings of this system, diagnosing its flaws while always mindful of its promise and potential.

This book, I have no doubt, is destined to be a reference point for decades to come for understanding this elite club of the Indian Administrative Service, to enter which millions of Indias fine young people continue to aspire and which several more million criticize for betraying the trust that the nation places in it.

I have had the privilege of working closely with Dr Saxena when he was the Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, where I was posted as a faculty, when I came to develop enormous respect and affection for him. Later, this only deepened as a colleague in the National Advisory Council of the United Progressive Alliance Government. Dr Saxena is gifted with a razor-sharp intelligence and intellectual curiosity. His intellectual grasp is boundless. He is uncompromising in his commitment to evidence-based scrutiny. He is never afraid of taking unpopular positions. I observe sometimes he takes an almost adolescent-like delight in arousing intellectual controversy. He combines all of this with a deeply felt allegiance to social justice, to the vision and values of the Indian Constitution, to the sacred task of nation-buildingof building a country which is just and fair to even the last and most vulnerable of its citizens.